


Falconry: Genus

by BetaCobra



Series: Falconry [5]
Category: Cobra Kai (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Established Relationship, Fluff, Insecurity, M/M, Self-Esteem Issues, Suggestive Themes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-15
Updated: 2020-12-15
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:27:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28079172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BetaCobra/pseuds/BetaCobra
Summary: “C’mon, I let my hair down for you and everything,” said Hawk, a mischievous expression spreading over his face, wiggling his eyebrows.Miguel reflexively grinned but nudged him back. Priorities, he thought to himself, helping cool the blood starting to rush under the surface of his skin. Schoolwork now. Fun later. “Let’s at least get through the homework first."AU canon-divergent from Season 2. A Falconry-verse one-shot.
Relationships: Miguel Diaz/Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz
Series: Falconry [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1691446
Comments: 9
Kudos: 60





	Falconry: Genus

Miguel glanced once more at the assignment paper laid out by his side before continuing to type away at the Word doc on his laptop. From the adjoining bathroom, he could hear the muffled blast from a blowdryer, making it difficult to concentrate on the task at hand. But he tried. The rock music they had playing from Hawk’s external speakers helped some, giving Miguel something to mumble along to while he typed.

He wanted to finish the school project that night. So under the picture of his Ya-Ya he’d pasted in the document, he started copying his notes out in a more legible form, detailing the facts she’d told him about her time in Ecuador for this assignment.

The sudden sound of the blowdryer turning off dragged his attention away again, and Miguel looked up for a second to see Hawk walk out of the bathroom, tossing his towel and school clothes into the hamper as he did so. He’d changed into a more comfortable t-shirt and joggers after his shower. And he’d washed his mohawk down. That, more than anything, signified his intentions.

Concentrate, Miguel reminded himself, focusing his eyes back on the computer screen. Only a couple more sections left, then he’d be done with the project and could submit it to his teacher.Then he’d have the whole weekend to not worry about it and could concentrate on things that were more fun, instead.

Hawk crawled on the bed up next to him and immediately became a distraction. Miguel felt a hand tuck under his shirt and work its way up his back while Hawk pressed his mouth under his jaw, making his breath hitch. He needed to put a stop to that fast or else he’d never be able to concentrate. “Kinda busy here,” he chuckled, making a point to continue typing even as he squirmed a little on the bed.

“C’mon, I let my hair down for you and everything,” said Hawk, a mischievous expression spreading over his face, wiggling his eyebrows.

Miguel reflexively grinned but nudged him back. Priorities, he thought to himself, helping cool the blood starting to rush under the surface of his skin. Schoolwork now. Fun later. “Let’s at least get through the homework first,” he said. “Have you even started on it yet?”

“Yeah, but it’s so boring,” whined Hawk, bringing his hand back out of Miguel’s shirt to run down his arm instead. “Besides, this family history stuff is an easy A. My parents got our family tree cataloged back for, like, centuries.”

A small twinge of envy tugged at Miguel’s insides. He bit his bottom lip. “Well, thankfully we don’t need to go back that far.”

“Any other karate legends in your family?” joked Hawk, elbowing him. He reached over to grab his MacBook from where he left it and sat down crossed-legged up close beside Miguel, opening his laptop and bringing up his own project.

Laughing under his breath, Miguel shook his head. “Not on my mom’s side, at least.” And his mom’s side was all he had to go on, the only topic he could cover in his project. He didn’t even dare bring up his male parent to either his mother or grandma when he mentioned the assignment; and they didn’t offer up any unsolicited information themselves, either.

It had always been this way. All the way back to Elementary School, when he never had anything to do for Father’s Day activities. He’d long since learned to not approach the subject, because it was fruitless. And it had become clear to him early on that it made his mother unhappy. So as far as the paternal side of the project was concerned, he might as well have never had a father at all.

The whole thing was stupid. He should’ve been able to just write something on Sensei Lawrence instead. Yeah, true, Sensei wasn’t his father, but he was the closest thing he’d ever known to one. Besides, there were kids in class with stepparents and adopted parents. It was practically the same thing. And the school always tried to make a big deal about its inclusion of non-traditional families, so why shouldn’t he be allowed to mention Sensei Lawrence?

Besides, with the way things were going between Sensei Lawrence and his mom, maybe it was only a matter of time anyway….

“Cool, so you’re the badass trailblazer,” said Hawk, typing at his keyboard.

“I come from a long line of badass Diazes, I’ll have you know,” Miguel emphasized, squaring his shoulders back. “You should listen to some of the stories Ya-Ya got up to. Even if she never learned karate, she should have been a legend in Ecuador. Also, when my mom first came to America, Ya-Ya told me some stuff you wouldn’t believe.”

Hawk grinned. “Sounds awesome.”

There came a knock on the door, and Hawk hastily scooted over some on the bed right before his mother stepped into the room. “Hey boys, I brought some treats,” she announced, setting a plate of chocolate-chip cookies by Miguel’s side.

“Thanks, Mrs. Moskowitz,” said Miguel, immediately grabbing one and taking a big bite. He savored how warm and gooey it tasted in his mouth.

Hawk’s mother eyed her son’s hair, which had been styled up in its usual mohawk when he and Miguel had first come into his room that evening, as well as his change of clothes. Miguel wondered what she made of it. But whatever was on her mind about it, she made no comment, instead handing Hawk a USB drive in her other hand. “Eli, your father scanned you the pictures you’ll need for your project. Let me know if you need any more.”

Miguel detected how Hawk’s ears flushed pink as he accepted the USB drive. “Yeah, I will,” Hawk mumbled.

“And turn down the music a little bit, alright? You father and I can hear it all the way in the living room.” Mrs. Moskowitz gave them another smile before leaving the bedroom, making a point to leave the door cracked open behind her. Hawk let out an irritated sigh, sticking the drive into his MacBook. He then grabbed his phone from the bed and turned down the music’s volume on the bluetooth speakers.

Swallowing the mouthful of chewed cookie, Miguel picked up the assignment sheet again and read off from it. “‘Include one photo of you and your parents or legal guardians while you were an infant.’ Well, I hope Mrs. Huang is cool with mine from being from my fourth birthday party, because that’s the earliest I got.” He pulled up the folder on his laptop of the photos he’d scanned and saved, a low laugh escaping from deep in his chest to mask his discomfort.

Hawk looked at him, raising an eyebrow. “Really? You telling me your mom didn’t take a million pics of you as a baby to show off? I thought all moms did that.”

“I’m sure she probably did, but mom and Ya-Ya moved around a lot when I was little,” explained Miguel, copying and pasting the picture into the Word doc before taking another bite of the cookie. He remembered that birthday. His Ya-Ya had made him a chocolate cake. His mom had bought him a new soccer ball. The memory made him smile. “A lot of things got lost in the moves, they said. So I don’t really have any baby photos.”

“Lucky,” replied Hawk without a moment’s hesitation. “I wish my parents would burn mine.”

Miguel’s face pinched hard and his mouth tightened, biting his bottom lip again. Hawk didn’t know how lucky _he_ was, did he? “Well, I wouldn’t really say I was ‘lucky’ to have the first part of my childhood lost,” he muttered, throwing up air quotes.

He didn’t know why it bothered him as much as it did. Most of his peers probably wouldn’t have cared at all. So many of them were embarrassed by their parents. But then, most of his peers didn’t have that experience of moving around a lot, apartment complex to apartment complex, when they were little kids. Of losing parts of themselves to that. Of having a whole side to themselves they were left in the dark about because it upset their mothers too much to talk about it.

From the corners of his eyes, he caught the way Hawk’s brows furrowed as he realized he’d stuck his foot in his mouth. “Sorry, I didn’t mean lucky about your mom and grandma losing their stuff, that really sucks,” Hawk clarified, fumbling with his fingers over the mousepad. “But nobody likes their baby pictures, man. They’re lame.”

“Oh come on, it can’t be that bad,” said Miguel, rolling his eyes. “I mean, babies are just babies. Yeah, they’re messy and loud and they smell bad, but other than that, there’s nothing that embarrassing about them.” This time, Hawk was the one shooting him a peeved look. Miguel didn’t understand why the weirdest things made him so insecure. “Okay, like, let me see the one you got for the project. How lame could it be?”

“Guess you’ll never know,” said Hawk, swiftly turning his laptop screen away from Miguel.

A sudden, overwhelming urge to see the pic hit him, out of pure adolescent curiosity, just for the fact that Hawk _didn’t_ want him to see it. “Come on,” Miguel teased again, leaning in closer and playfully reaching for the laptop screen, hoping to get Hawk to loosen up about the whole thing. “You know if it’s super embarrassing I’m not gonna tell the other guys anything about it.”

Hawk slammed his laptop screen closed so hard Miguel had to pull his hand back lightning quick to keep his fingers from getting caught in it. “Look, everybody knows I was born with a cleft lip,” said Hawk, his tone curt and the muscles in his face taut. “That doesn’t mean people get to see pictures from the freak show. Use your imagination if you want to see it that badly.”

A twinge of guilt stung Miguel, followed by shame. His eyes were drawn to the scar on Hawk’s upper lip in spite of him knowing better than to gawk, and he forced himself to look down at his hands instead and cringe. Why had it taken Hawk saying it out loud for him to connect those dots? That put his comment about wishing his baby photos were burned into perspective, at least.

Different people had different problems, Miguel reminded himself.

“Sorry,” he apologized, backing off. Then, unable to stop himself, he started rambling, “I know this’ll sound weird, but I kinda completely forgot about it. I mean, not really _forgot_ , it just sorta slipped my mind. If that makes sense. So, yeah, if you don’t want to show me, that’s fine.”

To his surprise, Hawk snorted, relieving Miguel when a small smile returned to his face. “Relax, it’s cool,” he assured him, clapping him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry about it.” The two of them stared at each other for a moment, until Hawk’s eyes flitted down and he declared, “This whole assignment’s a total drag.”

Miguel grinned. Hawk might as well have read his mind there. And he was glad to grab the invitation to put that bit of mild tension behind them. “Yeah, totally,” he agreed.

Hawk raised his eyebrows, keeping his hand where it was situated. “You sure you don’t wanna just put it off till later?” His smile widened suggestively. “Wouldn’t you rather be doing literally anything else right now?”

Well, why the hell not? Reaching out and grabbing a fistful of Hawk’s shirt, Miguel said, “You’re a bad influence, you know that?”

He felt Hawk’s hand travel up his shoulder to wrap against the nape of his neck. Miguel’s lips parted when he felt those fingers grazing the edge of his hairline. Their eyes met again and Miguel decided for sure he’d finished enough of the project for that night. So he didn’t object this time when Hawk leaned forward, pulling him in with his hand to close the small space between them and kiss his mouth.

When Hawk practically tried to crawl on top of him, and Miguel stretched out his legs to accommodate, it almost resulted in his laptop being crushed between the two of them. “That would’ve sucked,” he joked, picking up his laptop and closing it. They had no choice but to pause a minute to hastily put everything away. Hawk also closed and locked the door, apparently willing to deal with his parents about it later.

Miguel stood up from the bed when Hawk came back to it, bringing his hands up to cradle his jaw and draw him in for another kiss. He much preferred this to continuing the assignment, with its bringing to the surface old insecurities he’d rather put aside again; insecurities he was sure Hawk didn’t want to dredge up, either.

Hawk’s hands settled around the waistband of his track pants while Miguel pulled their lips apart, raking his fingers through the bright red hair. A smug smirk curled up Hawk’s face. “See? I knew you couldn’t resist that.”

That ignited something in Miguel. Wrapping his fingers in the strands of his undercut, he gave a little tug, jerking Hawk’s head back a bit. Hawk seemed to enjoy it, judging by his breathy laugh. A laugh Miguel felt convert to a moan into his mouth when he claimed another kiss from him.

The hands around his waist grabbed him closer as they drew out kiss after kiss. Miguel’s nerves electrified inside him, warming his skin again, drawing strained noises out of him while Hawk kept pressing up against his body, signifying his own excitement for how this evening was turning out.

And when they broke apart again, the anticipation reached its zenith when Miguel pushed Hawk on his bed and climbed on top of him. “How long you think before your parents check in?” he asked.

“Uh, twenty minutes?” Hawk guessed breathlessly.

Miguel stole the short breath out of him once more while his hands journeyed south to untie the drawstring of Hawk’s joggers. “Sounds like plenty of time then.”


End file.
